Posted on 04/20/2008 9:52:49 PM PDT by HAL9000
KATMANDU: Nepal's Chief Election Official said that Maoists have won half of the directly elected seats in elections for a Constitution-drafting Assembly.The ex-rebels who are formally known as Communist Party of Nepal (Maoists) have won 120 of the 240 directly elected seats. Counting is continuing for three seats, but the Maoists are not expected to win those.
The directly elected seats make up only about 40 per cent of the total seats in the Assembly, but the Maoists' win of half of these seats shows their level of support.
Most of the additional seats are to be allotted through a system that gives political parties a proportion based on the percentage of votes they received. Results for those seats are expected later in the week.
The Assembly will be charged with rewriting Nepal's Constitution. The election was held April 10.
Interesting? Anybody have any background info on this? Chinese interference, perhaps?
Chickens voting for Colonel Sanders.
The Maoists did so well because they arose from an armed populist revolt against Nepal's incredibly arrogant and isolated monarchy. "Maoism" was simply the form this revolt took for historical reason, as well as influence from similar groups in India.
This is one of those warning stories about how badly haywire things can go after decades of a government simply ignoring large chunks of its own population.
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The Maoists have been around for quite some time. They started raising their ugly around 1997 . It started as guerilla warfare in the hills and gradually into the populated areas. This has been a slow march for the communists, but it looks like they are very much succeeding. Historically the Chinese have not been big backers of the Maoists. Probably more so from countries like Pakistan.
India, however, has been a natural ally to Nepal which may have slowed their progress ever so slightly.
“The Assembly will be charged with rewriting Nepal’s Constitution”
It will probably look more like a manifesto when they are through.
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